Guardians of Equestria
by Dark Sault
Summary: The Tartarus gates have been breached as old and new villans alike join forces to take over Equestria. In efforts to stop the upcoming crisis, Celestia brings ten ponies as a team to protect Equestria with their lives. With overwhelming odds and danger around every corner, can the team of ten succeed? Takes place 500 years before the show. (Antagonist OC's welcomed)
1. Antagonist OC

**Hello, I'd personally like to thank everybody who submitted an OC to me as they'll be used in this story. Fireball, I'm sorry that I can't use your OC in this story but if I do decide to make another story called 'Guardians of Tartarus', which almost follows this one except other characters descend in Tartarus to restore it back to its original state or creatures will continue to go as they please. But I'm still unsure at the moment. Anyway, I'm just going to keep this chapter up if anybody wants to make an antagonist OC for this story. They are always welcomed.**

**(NOTE: Please be creative as possible!)**

** Antagonist Profile:**

**Name:**

**Gender:**

**Species:**

**Looks:**

**Personality:**

**Intentions:**

**Powers/abilities:**

**Background:**


	2. Breaking Out

Chaos and destruction reeked through the Tartarus, tormenting the wrecked souls that are forced to endure the pain for all eternity. Amongst the majority of the souls destined to be punished are Nightmare Forces and Darklings, once former members of Equestrian and Gryphon society who allowed their hatred and greed to consume them into what they call 'their true selves'.

Deeper within Tartarus, beneath the ground was a large cavern where more powerful creatures were chained and locked away. A total of twenty prisoners resides down here as they were the worst of the worst. Amongst one of them was Lord Tirek, a demonic centaur who was bent on taking all of Equestrian magic for himself but was ultimately stopped by Celestia and Luna before he could even begin.

Each prisoner had their own story of how they tried to bring down Celestia or bring Equestria to its knees but none of them ever came close to doing any of those things none other than the Darkling King himself. Unlike the other prisoners who used stealth or boldly and foolishly attacked head first to overthrow Celestia or destroy Equestria, he used a different technique.

He befriended the Princess.

Using his abstract knowledge of the Princess, he slipped close to her, publishing himself as a fake royal prince to a species known as Gargoyles. Since the Darkling King was in a form of a eight foot Gargoyle with dark purple skin, razor sharp teeth and claws, and glowing golden eyes. It was the perfect setup to shadow his real identity and purpose.

For months, Celestia and the Darkling King's friendship grew stronger as he kept her from fulfilling most of her royal duties and the danger that lured within the shadows. The Darkling's impending and ever growing army stood idly outside Canterlot within the shadows, watching normal ponies go about their day unaware of the danger right outside the city walls. They all awaited for their master's signal to strike.

The day finally arrived after six months of being with the princess. That night, the Darkling King created a powerful sleeping spell over Canterlot, not including the castle, making the civilians and guards fall asleep right on the spot. Then, the Darkling King sent a ray of light into the sky, signaling the attack.

The streets filled with Darklings as the remaining Royal Guards from the castle protected the castle gates the best they could, but their attempts to keep the Darklings at bay soon proved useless at the Darklings broke through the castle gates with ease before storming the castle and taking out any remaining guards left standing.

Celestia at this time was residing in the throne room where Royal Commissioners urged for Celestia to stay on task or they'll have to take some drastic measures to make sure the princess does her royal duties no matter what. That's when the Darklings stormed into the throne room as Celestia took action. Celestia did a good job at keeping the Darklings at bay but without any help, Celestia was soon overwhelmed.

As soon as the Darkling King revealed that he was the mastermind behind all of it, anger washed over Celestia as she tried to struggle to get free, but the Darklings kept her pinned to the ground. Before the Darkling King could declare victory that he was successful at overthrowing Celestia and bringing Equestria to its knees, Celestia had on final trick up her sleeve.

With one tear escaping from her eye, her horn began to glow brightly. The Darkling only watched as Celestia's magic grew in size right before it bursted out, engulfing the whole area in light and banishing the Darkling King and all his followers into Tartarus for all eternity. Ten years has passed as peace and tranquility soon returned to Canterlot with no more traces of Darklings anywhere.

But what nopony saw was that it was all part of the Darkling King's plan. The Gargoyle sat on his prisoned platform, chains latched onto nearly every part of his body as he silently counted to himself. As soon as he reached three hundred, he stood up and looked around the chaotic world he and every prisoner must endure.

"What a pitiful way to spend my time..." the Darkling king said before he grabbed onto one of the chains and snapped it off like it was nothing. Cerberus, Tartarus best guardians, heard the sound of chains snapping and turned to see the Gargoyle freeing himself. Cerberus let out a low growl before he charged. The king took notice of Cerberus rushing towards him as he braced himself before slamming his fist into the middle head, sending Cerberus into the air and into a wall, where rocks and debris covered Cerberus.

The Darkling King took another look around to see the prisoners taking notice of the scene around them as they all stared right at him. Now its time to start an uprising, thought the Gargoyle demon before he cleared his throat. "Brothers and sisters of Tartarus, our time is now. The time to show Equestria what true fear means is now. Once Celestia finally falls under our immense power, Equestria will be ours for the taking!"

As the Darkling spoke, the excitement surged through the prisoners as they cheered and applaud for the Gargoyle. "So the question is, are you with me?" the Darkling King asked as the prisoners cheered in agreement before he smiled and flew to the nearest platform which had a shadow shaped in a human's form with red glowing eyes. "Its about time you actually do something, and here I thought you just sit there and mope around." the shadow said before the Darkling King snapped off its chains.

"I see your alive and well, Arabus. Now hurry up and free the others, we've got a rebellion to start." he said as Arabus nodded his head and vanished into thin air. Suddenly, the Darkling King heard a sound behind him to see several Abigors, high-ranking demons that watched over the prisoners of Tartarus. Abigors looked a lot like teenage dragons except that their whole bodies were shrouded in darkness, purple glowing eyes and their dark claws were laced with deadly neurotoxins to either stun or kill their victims.

The Darkling King smirked before his claws began to glow with dark energy and sliced into one of Abigors, spilling its blue blood onto the dilapidated ground before the Abigor fell lifelessly to the ground. The remaining Abigors screeched out in anger over their fallen comrade. "Oh shut up you noisy bastards!" the Darkling King sneered out before swiftly decapitating the remaining Abigors and left them in their own pool of blood.

As the Darkling King made his way up through the prison, he dispatched any Abigors that stood in his way before reaching where the freed prisoners huddled together. He looked at each one of them as he recognized three of them like Shadowfright, the leader of the infamous Nightmare Forces, Arabus and Lord Tirek. The rest were a total mystery to him.

"Alright, we're almost home free. Our vengeance is upon those who put us here. Our time here is done and we will rise against our enemy as one!" The Darkling roared out as the prisoners cheered out in response before they marched forward towards their freedom.

But before they could reach the surface of Tartarus, a group of forty to fifty Abigors stood in their way, claws ready to shred into the prisoners. Prisoners stood their ground, ready to fight for their freedom but before anything can go down, the Dark Gargoyle walked over to the edge of the enormous cavern incline that lead down to the dark abyss below.

"Hey lazy ass! Are you going to help or are you going to stay down there for the next eternity?" the Darkling King yelled down before there was a deep growl and a ginormous chained fist came from the abyss. Before anybody could make a move, the gigantic fist came down on all the Abigors, squashing them all. As the fist lifts it hand back up, the scene in front of them was a bit unbearable.

Some of the Abigors were squished into oblivion while others were flatten with their silver intestines bursting through their sides, heads smashed into pieces as their brains laid everywhere and parts of their bodies bent in awkward and unusual positions. Normal ponies would have been sickened by this, but none of the prisoners were not sane.

The prisoners cheered in delight as a very large figure came out of the darkened abyss. The figure was almost tall as any mountain in Equestria as it had long claws, black eyes, a gaping mouth with fangs, huge black demon-like wings and wore pure red spiky armor. The giant looked down at the prisoners who were scared shitless of the beast before the Darkling King flew up to the creature's face. "Its about time you move your lazy ass. What the fuck were you waiting for, Hearth Warming?" he asked as the giant gave him the death glare before speaking.

"Darkling King, I should have known it was you who's behind all of this. What's the meaning of all this?" the giant asked in a deep tone, shaking the entire area with his voice. The dark Gargoyle smiled devilishly as he flew in a little closer to the giant's face. "Now, now Decondra, you know as well as I do that we all do not belong down here as we all belong out there, ruling over those 'imperfect' swine. Isn't that what you always want?"

The giant known as Decondra stroked his chin in wonder before he let his fantasy take over. It took a while before Decondra final made up his mind. "You got that right. But how can I trust you?" Decondra asked, not totally convinced that the Darkling King won't betray him in any way. The dark Gargoyle let out a small laugh before he flew up to Decondra's ear.

"You have nothing to worry about my brother, Why on Equestria would ever betray somepony as useful as you?" the Darkling King whispered into Decondra's ear, using a bit of his hypnotic voice into his question. Decondra looked at the Darkling King in confusion before the hypnotic voice took hold and he unwilling nodded before saying, "I guess your right."

With Decondra on their side, they all made their way to the surface of Tartarus. Just a hundred meters from them and across a bridge was the Tartarus Gates. These gates were nothing like any other. Instead of it being silver or gold like traditional gates, this one was made entirely out of black metal. Chains hung from almost every part of the gates as it swayed violently like it was trying to open itself up.

Before anypony could move towards the gates, there was a low pitch howl coming from almost every direction. "Tartarus Hounds!" one of the prisoners yelled out as hundreds wolf-like creatures raced toward the band of prisoners. These wolf-like creatures were about twenty to twenty-five feet tall, pure black fur, red eyes very sharp teeth and claws, and smoke emending from almost every part of their bodies.

The prisoners all turned and raced toward the gates, trying to outrun the Tartarus Hounds but they were soon swarmed as several Tartarus Hounds tackled some of the prisoners to the ground. The remaining group of escaped prisoners kept running towards the gates. Several more prisoners were wrestled to the ground before Decondra turned around and lifted his fist into the air and slammed it into the ground.

The ground where is fist slammed into began to crack before the ground started to collapse in front of them. Tartarus Hounds and prisoners alike were swallowed into the collapsing ground before it stopped, leaving a huge gaping hole, cutting off everything from the bridge. Decondra, Arabus, Lord Tirek, Shadowfright, the Darkling King, and four others were the only prisoners left that escaped from that ordeal before they all turned around and made their way towards the gate and towards their freedom.

Before they could reach the gates, two Abigors showed up and readied themselves to tear into the escaped prisoners. Before any of the prisoners could take care of them, there was a sudden flash of light as a large unicorn figure appeared. The figure stabbed its long horn into the back of one, spilling its blood all over the figure before tearing its horn upwards, cutting a larger hole into the Abigor before the other end of the horn came out of the Abigor's neck, killing it instantly.

The figure suddenly disappeared and reappeared next to the other Abigor and brought it to the ground before slamming its huge hooves into its head, cracking open its skull and spilled its brain all over the ground. The prisoners stay quiet as they stare at the figure who kept itself in the shadows before the Darkling King walked up to the figure.

"Its about time you finally show, did you bring it?" he asked as the figure nodded and threw a rolled up piece of paper in which the Darkling King unraveled it and looked at it as it was a map of Equestria with multiple circles circled all around the map. The Darkling smiled before rolling the paper up and stared at the figure.

"Thank you, now you know what to do next right?" the dark Gargoyle asked as the figure nodded and the Darkling King smiled. "Perfect, now you are dismissed!" he said before the figure bowed. "As you wish my lord." the figure said in a slight Russian accent before the figure disappeared in a flash of light and the dark Gargoyle turned to the remaining followers.

"Brothers and sisters in arms, today we take our first step to revenge and soon Equestria will fall under our power! They may fight back but if we all fight as one, we'll overcome even the toughest opponent. We will show Equestria what true power is and we will, without a doubt, win!" the Darkling King said before he whistled, attracting his followers as they all started making their way to their master.

The dark Gargoyle walked up to the gates and sliced open the chains, making the gates swing open with ease as they all started walking out towards where Equestria lies and an army of Darklings and Nightmare Forces soon followed.


End file.
